This is my 'Religious Views' section on Facebook, what do you think of it (atheist)?

[▐▀▀▼▀▀▌ ► Dmitri ◄ ▐▄▄▲▄▄▌]

"Religion was invented when the first con man met the first fool." - Mark Twain (1835-1910)

Essentially, I think that science and secular morality render religious belief entirely redundant and that the holy books are nothing but archaic, irrelevant-to-today dogma that contain nonsensical abhorrence. So I don’t believe in the existence of god because I don’t see any evidence or reason to whatsoever in the same way that I see no reason to believe in Santa or the Tooth Fairy. The immediate objection here by the religious is the “how could something come from nothing”. If at any point you are would ask that, please educate yourself by reading Stephen Hawking’s ‘A Brief History of Time’. Or I can summarise it for you. In it, Professor Hawking explains how, because of laws such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. He also contends that the existence of god is very nearly a statistical impossibility. Pair that with evolutionary biology and it truly is a wonder to me how people can believe in god (including a in deistic form) in contemporary times; it is a totally unfounded and irrational belief. People are quick to say at this point “that’s why it’s called faith” as if it were a good thing. Faith means making a virtue out of not thinking critically. It's nothing to be proud of. And those who preach faith, enable and elevate it are intellectual slaveholders, keeping mankind in a bondage to fantasy and nonsense that has spawned and justified so much lunacy and destruction.

Most religion is relatively harmless, albeit a silly waste of time that dampens and limits the psyche. The Church of England, for example, is moderate and reasonable enough for me to have no problem with. Of course, everyone should be free to believe as they wish. My main issue with religion begins when it is forced on others, especially children who are ill equipped to see its folly. After a lifetime of indoctrination, it can retard all critical facilities, essentially brainwashing. Take Jehovah’s Witnesses for example, a truly vile cult that instructs children to shun people who leave that faith even if they’re a family member and to reject blood transfusions even if it means death based on a misinterpretation of a scripture, with the Bible being false anyway! Thousands of its members have died from this policy. Also, to never question the leadership despite being wrong with ridiculous failed prophecies about Armageddon and frequent change in doctrine. A hateful, totalitarianistic regime in other words. It has taught, since its inception in 1870, that Armageddon is so close that there’s no point in getting an education or career, just be a slave for the cult by preaching obsessively. It condemns its members to live bizarre, low quality lives on the promise of living for eternity in paradise after Armageddon. Living in such abjection makes JWs have much higher mental illness rates than the general population. I hope you’ll agree with me, for that to be forced on a child is truly child mental abuse. The JWs are certainly what I would call ‘extremist Christianity’. Let’s not even go into the other form of ‘child abuse’ most commonly associated with religion, namely the Catholic Church. All I’ll say is this, supressing sex is a very bad idea, especially on Biblical grounds, the most evil manifestation of which [rape] destroys peoples’ lives.

Further, the societal depredations instigated by religious extremism make it something that I hate. The end result of religious extremism, among others, is the suppression of women and homosexuals, retarded pseudo-science like favouring creationism to evolution, and truly reprehensible things like suicide bombing. Without religion you’d have good people doing good things and bad people doing bad things, but for good people to bad things, it takes religion. Religious extremism, which I myself define as “people who follow a set of doctrines supposedly derived from a holy book which they believe to be the literal and 100% accurate word of a divine power”, I staunchly oppose in my daily life as I consider it to be both an intellectual disgrace and morally evil.

In summary:
If you’re an atheist and free thinker, good for you!
If you’re an agnostic/deist/moderate theist, that’s fine.
If you’re an fundamentalist/extremist: fuck you!

Please watch this masterpiece of logic and oration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqK4TM97ZCE

[Kerry]

I think I fell asleep while reading

[john]

sucks

[Giggity]

I completely agree, to me, believing in a God seems immature, and I don't care for those that call it faith, yes everyone can think as they wish, but to me it's everything but common sense, the most acceptable form of brain washing, I think more and more people are gaining sense, technology and science advance all the time, I don't deny that there probably was a Jesus or a Mohammed, but why does a MAN MADE book have so much influence, I honestly feel that anyone who should believe in all of that, either can't think for themselves effectively and soundly, and possibly need sectioning under the mental health act. It's ludicrous that it still has a profound influence to so many in the modern world, it served its purpose in the infancy of our intelligence, we've moved on, it's not needed, and the fact it persecutes so many minorities is unreal, when we live in a world that is advancing in terms of equality for all, constantly, which is how it should be. Oh and lets not forget according to some, the world is only 6000 years old, incredible, some people really need locking up.